What was the promise of god to Jacob?

Answer 1

Genesis 46:3 (New Living Translation)

3 "I am God, the God of your father," the voice said. "Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make your family into a great nation.

Answer:

God's promise to Jacob was the promise he inherited from his father, Isaac, who inherited it from his father, Abraham, Who got it from God:

"...unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; and I will make thy seed multiply as the stars of heaven, and I will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because that Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My Commandments, My statutes, and My laws." (Gen.26:3-5)

Ultimately, God's promise to Abraham and his seed is: Salvation through Christ, and the Kingdom of God on the earth.

"...for the promise, that he should be the HEIR OF THE WORLD, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." (Rom.4:13)

God's promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the same promise all men may inherit: "...know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham... and if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and HEIRS ACCORDING TO THE PROMISE." (Gal.3:7 & 29)

Answer 2

A:

The biblical story of the placename Bethel is somewhat inconsistent. In Genesis 12:8, Abraham had pitched his tent to the east of Bethel and built an altar. Later, in verse 13:3, he returned to Bethel and to the sacred altar. Yet in Genesis 28:11-22, his grandson Jacob slept in a certain place and dreamed of a ladder going up to heaven, where stood the Lord, who renewed his covenant with Abraham and Isaac. Jacob used a stone for a pillow and after waking put it on a pillar and poured oil on it. Then he named that place Bethel, but before then it had been called Luz.

It has long been known that there was a West Semitic deity named Bethel, associated with the veneration of sacred stones, thus the previous passages point to the city being named after the god Bethel. The Jewish Encyclopedia tells us that the worship of sacred stones constituted one of the most general and ancient forms of religion; but among no other people was this worship so important as among the Semites. Sacred stones are mentioned with great frequency in the Old Testament, with at least ten of these references associated with Jacob.